9. COPY OF APPOINTMENT LETTER OF PUBLISHER/PRINTER IN CASE THE OWNER IS NOT PUBLISHER/PRINTER

10. TEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF APPLICANT

11. ID AND ADDRESS PROOF OF APPLICANT

12. ID AND ADDRESS PROOF OF PRINTER

13. ID AND ADDRESS PROOF OF EDITOR

14. DETAILS OF PROPOSED FINANCIAL INVESTMENT IN THE NEWPAPER/ MAGAZINE

15. PERIODICITY OF THE PUBLICATION

16. REQUIRED TEN NAME OF NEWSPAPER

17. LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION

How To Start A Newspaper?

RNI : The Registrar of Newspapers for India

The office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India, popularly known as RNI came into being on 1 July 1956, on the recommendation of the First Press Commission in 1953 and by amending the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867. The Office of the Registrar of Newspapers is responsible for implementation of the Press and Registration of Books Act. The Registrar of Newspapers for India has its Headquarters at New Delhi. The Regional offices of RNI are at Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

1. The first step to start a newspaper is to get the title (name of the proposed newspaper) verified from RNI.

2. For this the publisher has to make an application for title verification indicating the name, language, periodicity, owner name and place of publication of the newspaper proposed, and submit it to the District Magistrate concerned.

3. The District Magistrate after ensuring the credentials of the applicant, will forward the application to the RNI, who in turn checks the availability of the title and if found verifies it. RNI informs the DM and publisher, the availability of the title by issuing a letter of title verification.

4. After this, the publisher has to file a declaration with the District Magistrate in the prescribed format available and can start publishing the newspaper.

5. The first issue of the newspaper should be printed within 45 days from the date of authentication of the declaration if it is a daily or weekly and in case of other periodicals, within 90 days.

6. The application for registration can be submitted to the RNI along with an attested copy of the declaration, copy of title verification, first issue of the newspaper and a ‘No Foreign Tie up’ affidavit duly attested by a Notary.

7. The newspaper should contain volume number, issue number, title prominently displayed on the cover page and all pages, date line and page number on all pages and an imprint line containing the name of printer, publisher, owner and editor, address of the place of publication and name and address of the printing press.

8. If the printer and publisher are different persons, separate declarations are required.

What are the formalities required after registration?

A copy of the newspaper should be delivered to the RNI whenever it is printed. The first issue after the last day of February should contain the Form No.IV duly filled in (Statement regarding ownership and other particulars of the newspaper). It is also mandatory to submit an annual statement in form II , on or before the last day of May every year. In case of daily newspapers, an additional form AR-R may also be submitted.

When to file fresh declaration?

Whenever there is a change of publisher, printer, owners, periodicity and printing press, the publisher/printer has to make a fresh declaration

RNI & Rules

The Registrar of Newspapers for India, The office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India, popularly known as RNI came into being on 1 July 1956, on the recommendation of the First Press Commission in 1953 and by amending the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867. The Office of the Registrar of Newspapers is responsible for implementation of the Press and Registration of Books Act. The Registrar of Newspapers for India has its Headquarters at New Delhi. The Regional offices of RNI are at Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Following are the services provided by RNI: –

Title clearance: The title cell verifies and approves titles for new publication in the country. The applications are received from the Magistrates all over the country under section 6 of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867. These are examined with reference to a database of titles maintained in the office computer record. Titles are finally approved at the level of Press Registrar.

Registration of Newspapers: Once the Registrar of Newspapers for India verifies the title, on the basis of an authenticated application by Magistrate, the Publisher must apply for registration within a period of two years.

The following documents are required for registration:-

a) Copy of the Title Verification Letter.
b) Attested copy of the Declaration duly authenticated by the
District Magistrate/Additional District Magistrate etc.
c) Affidavit for No Foreign Tie-up duly notarized.
d) Copy of first issue of the publication brought out within 42 days in case of dailies and weeklies and 90 days for fortnightly and above.
e) Copy of the latest issue of the publication.

In case the applicant does not apply for registration within the stipulated period of two years, the title is deblocked and available to any other applicant.

Revised Registration Certificate: The publisher must apply for the Revised Certificate of Registration in case of change of Publisher, Printer, Printing Press, Place of Publication and Periodicity. He/She is required to submit the following documents on the basis of which Revised Registration is issued: –

a) Original Certificate of Registration issued by the Office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India and in case it is lost, he/she is required to submit the affidavit for loss of certificate duly notarized along with the IPO of Rs.5/-.
b) Attested copy of the latest declaration duly authenticat by District Magistrate/Addl. District Magistrate concerned. (Prescribed format is available on the website http://www.rni.nic.in)
c) Affidavit for No Foreign Tie-up duly notarized.
d) Latest issue of the publication.
e) In case of change of Editor or price, the declaration is not required. The publisher can intimate these changes in writing. The changes will be entered in the Registrar of Newspapers records.
f) In case of change of ownership, the previous owner of the publication has to file an affidavit for transfer of ownership duly certified by the concerned First Class Magistrate concerned and the latest declaration filed by the present publisher/printer of the publication.

Once the first issue is published, the title verification letter, authentication of declaration, copy of first publication, printer agreement and application for RNI Registration can be submitted to the concerned authority to obtain RNI Registration and RNI Certificate.

First Publication – Compliances

The following are compliances the first publication or issue must comply with:

The publication should be printed in the press mentioned in the declaration and should primarily contain news/views/articles etc.

To ensure distinctiveness of the title, it should be displayed in the masthead, as verified and should not resemble/imitate any existing title. The title should be displayed in uniform font/letter size in mast head of the publication. The difference in font/letter size should not be more than 25%. The title shall be displayed either horizontally or vertically. In case of bilingual/multilingual publications the title in the masthead should be displayed in anyone of the languages of publication. Periodicity should not be mentioned along with the title in the masthead if it is not part of the verified title. If title displayed in the masthead is in language other than English or Hindi, the same should also be displayed in English/Hindi (it should be as verified and not translation and it can be in smaller font size).

The masthead should also carry dateline containing volume and issue number, date/month/year, periodicity, price and publication city, in the language of publication and also in English/Hindi in case of publications in languages other than English and Hindi.

Each page should display the title, page number, and date/month/year of publication.

The imprint line should be printed legibly as “Printed by, Published by, on behalf of (name of owner), Printed at( name and complete address of printing press), published from, complete address of place of publication and Editor name. The name of Editor given in the imprint line should be same as mentioned in the declaration. Editor-in-chief, Sub Editor, Chief Editor, Resident Editor etc. should not be mentioned as a part of the imprint line.

As per section 3 of PRB Act 1867 the imprint line should be legible. Hence, the font size and placement of imprint line should be such that it is legible and clearly visible. The is no specific place recommended for imprint line however, bottom of page 3 or 7last page of the publication should be preferred so that it can be easily located.

Procedure for Registration:

To obtain RNI Registration, after obtaining verification of title, the owner of the publication must file an Authentication of Declaration with the concerned authority in the prescribed format. The owner must then proceed with the publication of the first issue. Under section 5 (5) of PRB Act 1867, volume/year-1 issue-1 should be brought within 42 days of authentication of declaration, if periodicity is daily or weekly. If periodicity is fortnightly or above, volume/year-1 issue-1 should be brought out within 90 days of authentication of declaration. In case volume-1 issue-1 is not brought out within the required time period, a revised declaration should be filed and volume-1 issue-1 should be brought out within the required period from the date of authentication of revised declaration.

RNI Registration or RNI Title Verification cannot be obtained for

RNI Registration or RNI Title Verification cannot be obtained for the following:

Titles same or similar to a well-known Foreign Title in any language may not be verified until a valid license agreement with the foreign title owner is produced.

Newspapers and publications must mainly contain news or articles or opinions or views. Therefore, titles that contain words like such as advertisement, ads, classified, tender, calendar, panchang, matrimonial, yellow pages or directory may not be approved.

Titles that contain the word book or channel or gazette would not be approved. Also, titles having words same or similar to name of government scheme, government organization, foreign government organization, institutions, prominent titles, prominent trademarks, prominent brands, landmarks and prominent personalities shall not be verified as these may mislead public or exploit/misuse the name of the scheme/organization/institution/person and may also violate Trade MArk and copyright Acts.

Titles may also not be allotted if they make use of any kind of words sounding absurd or meaningless, have religious overtones, contain obscene language, offends public sense, contains negative connotations or any other object which may not be in public interest/taste.

Titles that are similar to an existing title will also not be approved. In case of any doubt regarding test of similarity, the decision of Press Registrar will be final.

Procedure for obtaining RNI No.

The procedure for obtaining RNI Registration can be divided into two steps: verification of availability of title and registration of title. For verification of availability of title, an application must be submitted to the concerned authority in the requisite format for verification of title. The application must contain information such as name of the owner, language, periodicity, state, district, title options (upto 5 title options can be provided) and meaning of the titles.

If the title is approved by the Registrar of Newspaper, then a title verification letter is issued to the owner of the publication. Once the verification of title is obtained, the owner of the publication can file for registration of title within 2 years of date of issue of verification of title letter. Once a title for verification is issued, the registration of title must also be obtained in the same name, as the ownership of the verification title is non transferable before registration.